WASHINGTON — Gen. David Petraeus told Congress on Wednesday that some U.S. combat troops might be included in an initial withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in July, but he said that he was still preparing options for President Barack Obama and that no final decision had been made.

Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, did not say how many combat troops might be withdrawn, or from which parts of the country they would come.

“I am still formulating the options that I will provide to the president and the recommendations that I will make,” he told the House Armed Services Committee. “But I do believe there will be some combat forces included in those options and in that recommendation.”

A range of administration, Pentagon and military officials have said that the first U.S. troops to come home in July are expected to be engineers and support troops, rather than combat soldiers, particularly because fighting is expected to be intense this summer and U.S. commanders do not want to lose the territory they have gained.

But Petraeus is seeking to balance demands from the military with the White House’s insistence on something more than cosmetic withdrawals in July.

Petraeus’ testimony echoed cautiously positive statements about the war that he made Tuesday to the Senate Armed Services Committee. The sessions were among a series of recent statements he has made citing U.S. progress in Afghanistan, but in the face of what polls show is faltering support among Americans for the nearly decade-old war.

To try to regain momentum, Obama sent another 30,000 U.S. troops there last year, bringing the total number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 100,000. At the same time Obama vowed that U.S. withdrawals would begin in July 2011, although substantial reductions are now not expected until 2014.